Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Mexico on Wednesday for his first visit since taking office, as the Trump administration intensifies its crackdown on illegal immigration and drug cartels while seeking to counter China’s influence in Latin America. Washington’s top diplomat will meet President Claudia Sheinbaum and other Mexican officials in Mexico City before continuing to Ecuador. Rubio, the first Latino to hold the post, previously visited Central America and the Caribbean on his maiden foreign trip, signalling the administration’s renewed focus on the region. The visit comes a day after the US military attacked a…

More than 1,000 past and present employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have called for the resignation of health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, accusing him of endangering public health with repeated attacks on vaccines. In a letter published on Wednesday, the group said Kennedy’s leadership had caused turmoil at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), citing the dismissal of its director, Susan Monarez, and her replacement by a Trump loyalist with no scientific background. The letter, issued under the banner Save HHS and co-signed by six medical organisations, accused Kennedy of “endangering…

Several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have voiced support for a bipartisan push in Washington to release all government files relating to the disgraced financier, who died in a Manhattan prison in 2019. Speaking outside the US Capitol on Wednesday, Anouska De Georgiou, who was abused by both Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, said the campaign for transparency came at a personal cost. “Every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health,” she said. “But this legislation really matters.” She argued that the only motive to oppose the bill would be…

Donald Trump has accused the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea of conspiring against the United States during a vast military parade in Beijing marking 80 years since Japan’s defeat in the Second World War. In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, the US president offered his congratulations to China on the anniversary but took a swipe at President Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un. “May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration,” he wrote. “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong…

China has staged its largest-ever military parade in Beijing, with President Xi Jinping declaring that the world stands at a crossroads between peace and conflict. The event, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, referred to in China as the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, drew dozens of world leaders, including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, in what analysts described as a pointed display of defiance towards the west. Addressing a crowd of more than 50,000 spectators in Tiananmen Square, Xi said humanity faced a choice “between peace or war, dialogue…

Afghanistan is reeling from a devastating earthquake that has killed more than 1,400 people and injured thousands more, with the Taliban calling for urgent international assistance as rescue efforts struggle to reach remote areas. The 6.0-magnitude quake struck on Sunday in the country’s eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, flattening villages built of mud and stone along steep valleys. Many victims remain trapped under rubble, but rescuers have been hampered by treacherous terrain, poor weather and damaged roads. On Tuesday, a second tremor measuring 5.5 hit south-eastern Afghanistan at a similar shallow depth of six miles, prompting fears…

At least 20 people are missing and six confirmed dead following violent protests that have swept across Indonesia for more than a week, a human rights group has said. The demonstrations began on 25 August in response to anger over the lavish perks and benefits enjoyed by lawmakers, including a controversial housing allowance. Tensions escalated sharply after a 21-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, Affan Kurniawan, was killed when he was run over by a police vehicle at a protest site. The Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) said on Sunday that it had verified 20 reports of missing…

China is carrying out oil and gas exploration inside Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to new research that analysts say reflects Beijing’s strategy of steadily eroding Taipei’s control over its territory. At least 12 vessels and permanent structures operated by the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) were detected in Taiwan’s EEZ during July and August, including one within 50km of the restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. Several steel foundations for offshore drilling platforms were also identified, according to research by the US-based Jamestown Foundation. The activity, which has not previously been reported, is viewed by…

Italy is weighing whether to keep details of state flights secret following the alleged jamming of satellite signals on an aircraft carrying the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, by Russia. Von der Leyen, a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin and Moscow’s war in Ukraine, was travelling to Bulgaria on Sunday when her chartered plane lost satellite navigation support. The failure delayed its arrival in Plovdiv and forced it to circle for nearly an hour. The incident has prompted renewed debate among EU member states over how to protect leaders’ flights from electronic interference. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of…

Kraft Heinz, the American food group behind brands such as Philadelphia cream cheese and Heinz tomato ketchup, has announced plans to split into two independent businesses, a decade after its creation in a $45bn merger. The Chicago-based company said it would carry out a tax-free spin-off, creating two separately listed firms in an attempt to simplify its structure and revive growth following years of declining sales. The move will unwind the 2015 merger of Kraft and Heinz, engineered by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and the Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital, two years after the pair took Heinz private. At…